X-Message-Number: 28174 From: "David Pizer" <> Subject: genetic or learned? Date: Wed, 5 Jul 2006 10:55:50 -0700 Many of us on Cryonet read and join in discussions to try to figure out how to change the minds of non-cryoncists and convince them to join us. The larger our movement becomes, the better the chances that the technology of cryonics will help us survive. One topic that interests me in this area of thought is how we existing cryonicists got this far in creating our opinions about cryonics, since being a cryoncists is a very rare thing to be at this early stage. There have been many discussions on Cryonet over the years, and recently, about whether we adult individuals are the product of some pre-design, (does genetics have more influence in causing us to be as we are); or is our upbringing the main influence in why we are the final product that we are. I would like to add a 3rd possible influence in why we cryonicists become who we are in our adult lives; The ability of some to grasp an understanding and trust of logic. There are some on this forum who have learned to use logic as their tool to make changes in their thinking and therefore create themselves mentally. They use logic to override what their parents, (or other authorities), tried to teach them or what their genes may have tried to cause them to believe. In other words, once they discover the usefulness of logic they use it to create themselves. Now there might still be a lingering question of whether those who use logic in a beneficial way to create their new minds do so because they were taught to use it or because they had a genetic predisposition for it. When looking for clues in this area we tend to look for people who are good in math. But I have found that some people I know who can do very technical math problems have less common sense in solving everyday problems. Is math the same as logic? It looks similar in some ways but I suspect there are great differences. Because it was the logic of the cryonics gamble that got us this far we try to use logic to convince others to see the cryonics gamble in the favorable light that our logic causes us to see it. Perhaps it is because so many other humans are the final mental product they are for reasons other than discovering and then a strict use of logic in their personal lives that our use of logic in discussing cryonics is not persuading them? David P. Content-Type: text/html; [ AUTOMATICALLY SKIPPING HTML ENCODING! ] Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=28174